Conservation Planning

Our conservation planning efforts help to answer the question of where the best opportunities exist for TU’s conservation work. To accomplish this, we use the best available information on fisheries resources, habitat conditions and future threats to identify priority areas for protection, reconnection, and restoration. This helps to ensure that TU’s place-based work achieves the greatest conservation benefit for the least cost.

2015

Trout Unlimited. 2015. Escalante River Aquatic Assessment Final Report. Trout Unlimited, Arlington, VA. Working as a member of the Escalante River Watershed Partnership, TU developed this assessment using the conceptual framework of our Conservation Success Index to produce a roadmap of conservation strategies that can be used by partner organizations to guide research and data collection, project work, and management actions within the Escalante River watershed.

Lahontan Cutthroat Trout Keystone Initiative. 2010. We work with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to help guide and implement this program, through which they fund priority conservation needs for the Federally-listed Lahontan cutthroat trout: eradicating non-native species and protecting watersheds from invasion, reconnecting stream populations, working with agencies and landowners to restore habitat, and reintroducing populations across the native range will help move this unique trout towards recovery.

Williams, J.E., and A.L. Haak. 2010. Fisheries management during uncertain times: developing a diverse conservation portfolio for the long-term persistence of native trout. In Wild Trout X Symposium. Pages 32-39. West Yellowstone, Montana. How the concept of portfolio diversity can apply to trout populations just as well as your financial investments and why it is a good idea to diversify both.

Webb, M.A.H., J.E. Williams, and L.R. Hildebrand. 2005. Recovery program review for endangered pallid sturgeon in the Upper Missouri River Basin. Reviews in Fisheries Science 13:165-176. A look at recovery planning in the Upper Missouri and impacts to one of the most endangered fishes in the nation.

Williams, J.E., C.A. Macdonald, C.D. Williams, H. Weeks, G. Lampman, and D.W. Sada. 2005. Prospects for recovering endemic fishes pursuant to the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Fisheries 30(6):24-29. This report describes the difficult task of recovery of fish that occur in very small geographic areas and why some of these narrow endemics may never meet their recovery criteria as described by the Endangered Species Act.